How I Found the Doherty Silk Sox
The Doherty Oval where the Silk Sox played, located behind the Henry Doherty Silk Mill in Clifton, N.J.
Bibbs Raymond
We thought he was nuts.
“My grandfather played against Babe Ruth and the Yankees over by the Good Deal Super Market on Main Ave.”
Danny Raymond wasn’t crazy. Like the rest of us, he was a regular kid growing up in Clifton, N.J. The only thing strange about Danny was he batted left-handed and his older sister Susan was a better baseball player than any of us.
“Babe Ruth and the Yankees never played in Clifton!” my friends yelled. “What’s your grandfather’s name?”
“Bibbs Raymond,” Danny answered.
We screamed with laughter. What kind of name was “Bibbs” for a ballplayer?
“What team did he play for?” one of us asked.
“The Silk Sox!” Danny answered.
Again more screams. There were Red Sox, White Sox but “Silk Sox”? Who would name a team that? And the Yankees playing in our hometown Clifton? Impossible!
Years later, my mom gave me an envelope filled with old newspaper clippings she’d cut out after Babe Ruth died. I found a small story with a headline: “Ruth’s Homer Ended 1923 Clifton Game.”
Danny had been right.
The Yankees did play in Clifton against the Doherty Silk Sox at a field called the Doherty Oval. In the box score, batting cleanup and playing right field was a player named “Raymond.”
So began my quest to learn about the Doherty Silk Sox – perhaps the greatest independent semipro team from the time of WWI and into the Roaring Twenties.
The Silk Sox (also known as the Paterson Silk Sox due to their proximity to neighboring Paterson, N.J.) played in Clifton, behind a red brick silk mill that stands today on Main Ave. Thanks to my mom’s clipping, I quickly found Ruth and the Yankees in the Silk Sox’s history, but that was only small part of what I learned.
If you’re reading this blog, you’re intrigued about this once-forgotten team who played on an actual “field of dreams.” Good. While this is a site to attract publishers to contact my agent and publish my book (read the sample chapter – I trust you won’t be disappointed), it’s also a place where you can learn more about this amazing team full of maverick characters who created their own alternate baseball universe.
Stop by often. There is more of a story to tell.
